If you really wanna go, someday, maybe...
1. Start with the Moon. Grow a robotic settlement there... energy grid, and communications.
2. Have the robots build a shirt sleeve environment; inflatables or a cave.
3. Settle some people( at huge cost initially) and learn to produce some basic needs from the land (oooopps, MOON)!
4.....

The technology required for wormholes is so far removed from our current and plausible near-future capabilities that to throw lots of money at it would almost certainly be a total boondoggle.

So basically what he's saying is we might as well dump the money into a black hole. Sounds like most government programs.

"warp drive or a traversable wormhole is so far, far, far beyond the technology needed for a laser sail or a nuclear-pulse rocket that I would not be in favor of putting any significant resources into trying to develop it."
Hmmm. But a wormhole might get us interstellar, while laser sail or nuclear-pulsed rocket , certainly not. Reaction engines, whatever the source of energy are inherently limited.. Damn Tsyolkowsky!

First: Why are these people doing it?
Second: If they really want to jump that high, why do it with a winged vehicle? (It's an acceleration/deceleration trip, it's not a cruise trip).
Use a rocket stage to sling up, and a parachute, retro-rocket for descent and landing!

In the short term of two decades there is no meaningful purpose in sending humans to Mars.
The way robotic and human exploration of the solar system is:
1. Start an OPEN Foundation Model of exploration: open to all (government institutions, enterprises, institutes, individuals).
2. Start with the Moon surface.
3. Define a road-map for explorations: locate suitable sites on the Moon surface. Land (Selenize) a robotic colony on site.
4. Have the robotic colony establish energy grid and communications infra-structure on site. (Practice on a remote Earth environment with a reality show
environment for entertainment, collect funds, and generate visibility to the project.
5. Have robots assemble a shirt sleeve human environment on the Moon surface. May in underground caves or inflatable tents.
6. Send people to live on the Moon.
7. Then... on to Mars?!

I would not assume human consciousness and human memory are not binary and deterministic the way machines are.
Human memory and human consciousness are the results of multi-state (almost continuous) arrangements of the brain cells and the diffuse connections between these cells (dont's ask me to explain these! Yes I talk to God!!!)

andy1307 writes: According to Politico and The Wall Street Journal, the White House on Tuesday plans to announce a set of executive actions President Barack Obama will take that are aimed at reining in certain patent-holding firms, known as "patent trolls" to their detractors, amid concerns that the firms are abusing the patent system and disrupting competition. The plan includes five executive actions and seven legislative recommendations. They include requiring patent holders and applicants to disclose who really owns and controls the patent, changing how fees are awarded to the prevailing parties in patent litigation and protecting consumers with better protections against being sued for patent infringement.